KLM authors

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By WATCH OUT FOR THESE AUTHORS AT THE KOLKATA LITERARY MEET, TAKING OFF ON JANUARY 30 AT THE BOOK FAIR IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE TELEGRAPH

Published 29.01.13

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Mridula Koshy

Shuffling between Portland, Oregon and New Delhi, Mridula Koshy’s debut fiction work If It Is Sweet (Tranquebar) was an unsettling read that asked: what is it people see when they see one another? A collection of short stories, the book won her the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize in 2009. Koshy’s second work of fiction Not Only the Things That Have Happened (titled The Lost Boy outside the Indian sub-continent) was launched in September last year. Spanning 36 hours, it paints a web of memories revolving around Annakutty Verghese and the born-out-of-wedlock son she gave up for adoption.

With Jeet Thayil, Amitabha Bagchi, Ruchir Joshi and Arunava Sinha, Koshy will talk about the challenges posed by the second novel to an author, on February 2. Before that, on January 31, Koshy will be in conversation with Bharati Mukherjee and Debnita Chakrabarti about what connects and disconnects while writing about one’s home from another home.

Sadaf Saaz Siddiqi

Sadaf Saaz Siddiqi, born in the US and raised in the UK, is a Bangladeshi entrepreneur, activist and writer. Siddiqi belongs to a new generation of Bangladeshi novelists joining the global literary community because they have started to write fiction in English. Her poems have been in the anthology Journeys, and featured in Sharbari Zohra Ahmed’s film Duniya. What gives her poetry a distinctive touch is the mix of classical English along with Bengali words.

Farah Ghuznavi

Drawing upon her experience as a development professional, Bangladeshi-born Farah Ghuznavi has penned a number of short stories, flash fiction and creative non-fiction. The London School of Economics graduate has been published in the UK, the US, Canada, India, Singapore and Bangladesh. One of the winners of the 2010 Commonwealth Short Story Competition for Judgement Day, she has recently edited Lifelines: New Writing from Bangladesh, a collection of enthralling short stories for Zubaan Books.

Ghuznavi will take the KLM stage on February 2 for a session titled “A New Link Language”, discussing English writing on either side of the border with Sampurna Chattarji, Sreemoyee Piu Kundu and Sadaf Saaz Siddiqi.

Anita Nair

The Better Man, Ladies Coupé, Mistress… author, travel writer and playwright Anita Nair cut out a place for herself in the Indian literary scene since her debut with Satyr of the Subway (1997). Having published her latest novel, Cut Like Wound in 2012, a psychological thriller that finds inspector Gowda investigating a series of murders in Bangalore, KLM 2013 would find Nair talking thrillers. The Kerala-born, Tamil Nadu-educated and Karnataka-based (Bangalore) author would find a worthy companion in American writer Corban Addison when they discuss ‘Thriller Cities’ on February 3 with Ravi Subramanian and Arunava Sinha.

John R. Schmidt

John R. Schmidt teaches at George Washington University, having served in the US State Department, including a stint as a political counsellor in the US embassy in Islamabad in the three years leading up to 9/11. He is the author of The Unraveling: Pakistan in the Age of Jihad. Schmidt will discuss the macro and micro view of jihad and Pakistan, with Deborah Baker and Ali Sethi on February 1.

Madeline Miller

Madeline Miller will take a break from tutoring Latin, Greek and Shakespeare to high school students in the US to discuss ancient epics at this year’s KLM.

Born in Boston, Miller is known for adapting classical texts to modern forms. She attended Brown University, University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought, and Yale School of Drama. The Song of Achilles, her first novel, was awarded the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction and was a New York Times best-seller. Along with Amruta Patil, Miller will be discussing her interest in epics and how the young generation seeks to interpret it, in a chat with Supriya Chaudhuri on February 3.

Corban Addison

Corban Addison holds degrees in law and engineering from the University of Virginia and California Polytechnic State University, but what he loves most is writing.

In the summer of 2008, Addison’s wife gave him an idea that he found irresistible — a novel on the global trade in human beings. He embarked on a journey that took him to India and Europe and into the corridors of power in Washington DC. In immersing himself in the world of modern-day slavery, he spent time with experts and activists in the field and went undercover into the brothels of Mumbai to meet trafficking victims. A Walk Across the Sun was born out of this journey.